DAY 14
Thursday, September 9th 2004

Press Day

A busy day on the publicity front as Audrey Boyle from the Suffolk Wildlife Trust had done her work well and we had teams from both the BBC and Anglia on site today, interviewing Jezz and Richard. We also had a journalist from the East Suffolk Advertiser who spoke to Richard and collected George’s photos. The Times Educational Supplement is also running a paragraph and a photo of the children from Aldeburgh Primary School, as part of their Teacher to Teacher page; they were interested in how the school had been involved in the project, with Richard going to talk to them last term. The EADT carried a long piece, headed with the photo of Alison holding the Neolithic leaf arrow head.

Meanwhile work continued on excavating the features. During the late afternoon we carried out a survey of the different levels on Trench A. A long survey pole was held up, and accurate sightings taken of it in each position. Results were noted, and Jezz will use them to draw a plan of how the underground soil levels run.

Duncan carried on delving deeper and deeper in an attempt to show the profiles of the large ditches.

Two separate groups were also taken off to Grange Farm and trained in metal detecting. Finds included a coca cola tin.

Report from Pippa, trainee metal detector:
Roy offered to take some of us metal-detecting, but since we had found almost no metal on site, we had to go across the road to Grange farm. After enthusing us all by showing us things that he had found over the years, which included metal sovereigns and a beautiful Roman broach, the detectors were handed over, and we were off, traipsing up and down the potato field. Roy had warned us that it is not easy to find things, and, true, I found nothing but a tiny scrap of unidentified metal. Mike, however, with eight years of experience under his belt, found a George III coin and a probably-Victorian drawer handle. Though I was jealous of his success, I think that we were all inspired by the endless possibilities that metal-detecting holds. At any moment one might be about to stumble across the greatest horde ever found…